Stop Complaining and do Something About it.

If you go back a mere two hundred years, the chances are that most people reading this blog in the UK would be working 14 hours a day in shocking conditions for a wage that barely met the cost of living, and when I say living, a more accurate description would be existing. The poor were poor, and the wealthy were wealthy, it was just the way things were, and there was nothing that the poor could do about it. There were no mass education systems, and no opportunities to better yourself. Other than hard labour in the fields, or in a factory, the only other option was the military, which would often mean spending years away from your family, and an almost inevitable death on foreign soil. If you were not born into wealth, you would never be wealthy. 

Though Britain was technically a constitutional monarchy, it was arguably not a true democracy. Only a select few could vote, and those who could were pressured, or threatened into voting to maintain the status quo. Those who attempted reform were seen as trouble makers, and would often see former allies become enemies. 

The population of the United Kingdom in 1780 is estimated to be around 7.5 million. The electorate in England and Wales, that is everybody eligible to vote, was estimated to be around 214,000 people, all of them were male. That is just under 3 percent of the population choosing a government. With figures so low, you could argue that it barely constituted a democratic society. Of that 3 percent, almost all were from the wealthy classes.

For them, voting for a politician who supported the rights of the poor was like a turkey voting for Christmas. While the poor remained poor, the wealthy controlled the labour markets. They could pay criminally low wages, and expect hard graft in return, because the employment opportunities were limited to low paid, low skilled labour. People couldn’t simply threaten to quit and go elsewhere because conditions elsewhere were no better.

Just over half a century later in 1832, these voting rights were extended to property owners an occupiers whose property was worth between two and five pounds per annum in rent, or a total property value of ten pounds, provided that they had occupied the property for at least twelve months.

Things didn’t get much better throughout the 19^th Century, and it wasn’t until 1918 when all men over 21, and some women over 30 were given the vote. It took another decade for equal voting rights for men and women, following a campaign by the suffragettes movement, in which women died, or were sent to jail to win equal voting rights. In 1969 the votes were extended to all men and women over 18.

Men and Women fought for hundreds of years for the right to vote. They fought for the rights of the poor, and the rights of women to have equal voting rights. They went to jail, or even died, so that we could all have a say in our futures, and vote for a democratically elected Government. Their sacrifice meant that the wealthy no longer have complete control over labour markets, and people have the opportunity to better themselves. Without their sacrifices we would never have had social reform, mass education systems, a national health service that is free for all, and benefits for the poor.

Despite all of this, millions of people fail to even register to vote. In 2019 more than 5 million people failed to register to vote, and of those who did register to vote, more than 15 million didn’t vote. That is more than 20 million of those at voting age who didn’t take up their right to vote in a democratic election. How many of those 20 million have complained to friends and family about the actions of the Government or taken to social media to call for change. I simply do not understand how you can demand change, and then forgo your opportunity to bring about that change. If you are not happy with the way things are, complaining about it on social media, or at the pub with your mates achieves nothing. The best thing you can do is vote for that change.

I wonder how many of those people who fail to register, or vote believe that one person cannot make a difference. Times that one person by 20 million and see what a difference that makes. Imagine if we all thought the same way, nobody would vote, and nothing would change. So why not honour those who sacrificed everything so that you could live in a democratic society and register to vote so that their sacrifice was not in vain.